Herbal teas

[mrsmummytobe]

Hi everyone,

I'm totally new to this but my dh & I want to start ttc either end of April/beginning of may. I'm trying to get into good habits now & I have cut out caffeine & have been drinking herbal tea instead. I read somewhere that not all herbal teas are safe when pg. Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Don't drink too much green tea as it can affect folic acid absorption. Peppermint fine. Not sure about the rest.

I usually drink a lot of herbal tea but have stopped and am having mainly lemon tea or boiled water (fun, I know!). I just looked up individual ingredients as it's easier that way, but off the top of my head I've read that chamomile, nettle, licorice root, sage and green tea should be avoided. the herbal teas I usually drink are not commercial bagged tea but loose, so that's why I'm being more cautious (stronger concentrations).

Thanks for the replies. I think lemon & hot water may be the way forward for me too, pinksky! I love teapigs tea bags & I have got a whole range of the flavours but think sadly most of these will probably have to be avoided when I'm actually pg.

The sort of stuff you can buy in the supermarket is fine (like the twinings fruit infusions). You may have to be cautious with stuff from a health food shop but the ordinary fruity infusions are fine.

Thanks for the advice, KatAndKit. I'm going to see what else I can find out about the individual flavours online.

Hi I'm another one who's just doing lemon and hot water to be on the safe side. I was drinking loads of ginger with hot water (loved that) but read lots of ginger was bad? Glad I'm not the only one thinking about this and being so cautious!

Regular tea in moderation isn't dangerous for the baby.

Each to their own but it's really not necessary to be overly cautious to the point if cutting out all regular tea.

You need to be aware that most green tea actually contains caffiene too!

Tried the Redbush option? No caffeine, still a tea-ish taste if you don't make it too strong.

Drank it for past 2 years up to getting pg... and then went off it at about 6w...

and back on coffee.... - albeit EXTREMELY WEAK coffee (more like hot water infused with smell of coffee) and only 2 cups a day too ;)

Ooh redbush sounds nice! Haha well everything in moderation!

I has some concerns about herbal teas early on and searched around for info. I remember that ginger, peppermint, redbush/rooisboos, raspberry leaf are fine (cupboard.stocked ), but strangely, too much chamomile is not, so I've also avoided other floral herbal teas like chrysanthemum, which I normally like. Also, read the packaging for all the fruit teas as some contain caffeine and some are.caffeine free.

I also sneak a cheeky sip of coffee every now and then but only ever have a half cup or so . Ahh, the sacrifices!

Thanks spaghettibolognaise, that's really strange about chamomile. Oh well, guess I better drink up the rest of my chamomile tea bags now before ttc! I thought I had heard that raspberry leaf was also one to avoid?

Haha damn autocorrect - meant bolognese!